Description

SAFFRON WALDEN

TL5338 BRIDGE STREET 669-1/1/32 (West side) 28/11/51 Nos.27 AND 29

GV II*

House. C15, altered in C16, enlarged in C20. Timber-framed and plastered. 2 storeys and attics, peg-tiled roof. Rectangular plan of house with rear full length ground floor lean-to, large central red brick stack in front of roof apex. Front, E elevation: jettied to S and recessed to N with integral roof. Brace from jetty to projecting eave-plate, together with projecting tie-beam and matching eave-brace from jetty of No.31 (qv) shows building to be a `Wealden' open hall house. Nos 27 & 29 occupy service and hall units. Elevation plastered, old pargetting with decorative panels of zig-zag, basket and semicircles. Jetty joists, brackets and eaves-braces exposed. Ground floor now below street level due to alteration of street gradient. S-N, C19 door of 6 beaded panels, bay window, under jetty, of 3 casements and return side casements with leaded panes, second similar window of only slight projection on original hall window site with slate roof, door with 6 beaded panels. First floor, S-N, two 3-light windows with leaded panes, one in each unit. Rear, W elevation: C20 restoration, windows all replaced and earlier ground floor lean-to rebuilt in brick and rendered. First floor timber and plastered. Roofs over hall (N) peg-tiled, over service unit (S) slate, lean-to roof of plastic (slate) tiles. Ground floor all doors fully glazed with glazing bars. S-N, French window with side lights in all, 6x5 panes, window, double casement 4x3 panes, adjacent door 3x5 panes, second similar door and adjacent window. First floor, 2 casement window 4x2 panes. Attic, 3 casement dormers, flat heads, two 4x3 panes with one of 4x4 panes in between. Stack above behind apex. The S end has C20 rebuilt lean-to extension, now flat roofed, set above footway from street, single plain first floor window. INTERIOR: although altered, basic original position of service partitions and doorways clear from stud mortices and wattle grooves. Cross-entry and street door were set under, and overshot by, first floor chamber. Evidence of 2 service doors and buttery/pantry division. Also, in-line rear door to stair trap to upper chamber. Remains of wide arched spere below N edge of jettied chamber with rectangular grooving in frame for boarded infill back to entry door jambs. Framing above tension braced with wattle and daub infilling. Jetty joists are flat laid and jointed by simple soffit tenons. Hall principal tie-beam off centre, towards service end with exposed elegant chamfered arched brace seen at rear. Brace shape is continued round truss by tie-beam and principal post fillets. Crown-post above (seen in attic) is 2-way braced with simple step-stopped chamfers to post, collar purlin continues through roof with bridled scarf joint over crown post and old mortices showing former site of accompanying bracing from plain partition crown-posts. Roof shows remarkably light sooting. Hall wall-plate at rear has a long halved and bridled butted scarf joint and a long shutter rebate over site of original hall window. Hall was divided horizontally by a first floor c1550 using flat laid joists with step-stopped chamfers and diminished haunched soffit tenons. Brick stack was probably inserted then (now considerably rebuilt and blocked), supporting the inserted floor. Stack on ground floor set within central spere arch, ground floor fireplaces face both hall and service area. The house is a relatively large, robust, but minimally decorated example of the several houses of `Wealden' type found in Saffron Walden e.g No.24 (qv). (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Ratcliffe E: Essex: London: 1965-: 336).

Listing NGR: TL5352038679

External Links

• Wikidata Q17534684

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